A Montreal woman who was told by health-care professionals that she was too young for breast cancer but later diagnosed with it, has died from the disease. Valerie Buchanan was 32 when she died at the end of February.
“I keep asking myself why anyone, but selfishly, why her?” Chris Scheepers, Buchanan’s husband told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview. “She was a beautiful person. She was extremely driven, talented and positive. What really breaks me is our son won’t know the truly remarkable woman she was.”
Throughout 2020, Buchanan sought answers for a lump in her chest but had said she was reassured by multiple health-care professionals in Ottawa and Montreal that it was a benign cyst without sending her for imaging to confirm.
After 13 months, Buchanan eventually went to a private clinic and was diagnosed with Stage 3 triple-negative breast cancer – a biologically aggressive subtype of breast cancer. Just a few months later, she learned it was Stage 4.
Where do you think Montreal is?
Probably assumed it was in the US lol
Yep, and its true if it weren’t a money maker like imaging they might find it difficult to get a proper diagnosis in the US, but I’m willing to bet the otherwise great healthcare systems in many developed nations still dismiss women’s health concerns with unfortunate regularity, even in 2025.
yup, especially things like heart attack which can be atypical in woman.
Dismissing women’s health concerns is a consequence of dismissing women, an issue no culture on earth has overcome.
Too true, and I do trust we will. Every new generation is socialized a bit differently than the last. Hopefully we’re passing along fewer of these biases to the next.
Not so certain about English speaking countries due to the manosphere and surge of conservatism / ‘traditional values’ among young men but we can hope.
Right after Monduoal and Monunal